#23 in Stress management books
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Reddit mentions of Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers: The Acclaimed Guide to Stress, Stress-Related Diseases, and Coping (Third Edition)
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Reddit mentions: 6
We found 6 Reddit mentions of Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers: The Acclaimed Guide to Stress, Stress-Related Diseases, and Coping (Third Edition). Here are the top ones.
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| Release date | September 2004 |
Congratulations! That's wonderful!
> adrenals, cortisol, blood sugar, and hormones connected to libido
These test results may be the key. The common element for all of them is probably chronic stress. The level of stress doesn't have to be all that high, but if it never goes away, your adrenal glands keep pushing out the adrenaline, noradrenaline, and cortisol, and they will increase your blood sugar levels and reduce your testosterone and oxytocin production, which reduces your libido, makes sex less fun, and makes it harder to connect emotionally with your husband when you're touching each other.
High chronic levels of cortisol also impair your immune system, cause long-term neurological damage, and are particularly bad for your long-term health, so this is worth tackling for more reasons than just restoring your libido. (Although that's reason enough! :)
Unless you have a glandular problem, like a hyperactive pituitary or something wrong with the adrenals themselves, the best results usually come from learning to manage your stress levels better. This includes things like making lifestyle changes to get more sleep and exercise and time outdoors, rearranging your normal routine to exclude predictably stressful encounters, and practicing effective stress management techniques like regular meditation, which has proven to be quite effective at lowering cortisol levels in the blood.
I went through a major libido crash and DB episode many years ago and my SO and I managed to get through it by working on stress and changing the way we had sex. In particular, I definitely recommend becoming a faithful meditator. It takes a little bit of discipline at first, but all it takes is 10-20 minutes and it very quickly becomes part of your daily routine.
Two articles that may help you figure out what is best for you:
And two books:
I hope these help, and that you have many more great experiences like this one!
One possible reason is that there are different types of fat and people often fail to distinguish them and even some scientists sometimes fail to note the difference as a confounding variable.
From Robert M. Sapolsky's book about the biological stress response "Why Zebras don't get ulcers."
> Time for one of the great dichotomies revered by fat cell aficionados: fat cells located in your abdominal area, around your belly, are known as "visceral" fat. Fill up those fat cells with fat, without depositing much fat elsewhere in your body, and you take on an "apple" shape.
> In contrast, fat cells around your rear end form "gluteal" fat. Fill those up preferentially with fat and you take on a "pear" shape, being round-bottomed.
> The formal way to quantify these different types of fat deposition is to measure the circumference of your waist (which tells you about the amount of abdominal fat) and the circumference of your hips (a measure of gluteal fat).
[...]
> This stimulation of visceral fat deposition by glucocorticoids is not good news. This is because if you have to pack on some fat, you definitely want to become a pear, not an apple. As we saw in the chapter on metabolism, lots of fat is a predictor of Syndrome X. But it turns out that a large WHR [waist-to-hip-ratio] is an even better predictor of trouble than being overweight is.
Another subtlety is that the often used Body Mass Index only accounts for weight, not fat specifically (much less which type of fat as explained before). So aside from the extremes, it does not really tell you much about the figure type (athletic, chubby, skinny-fat, etc.).
As a consequence some people get hung up on the flaws of the BMI and throw out the metaphorical baby with the bathwater.
Then there is the philosophical argument that people have the right to decide themselves how they want to look.
Mostly commenting here in case someone else comes along with a more proper answer...
I'm assuming you're asking for literature, as in the studies he's citing as he goes along, etc. I don't have that, but you can probably get a lot of them from looking at the "textbooks" for the class. In the first lecture, he mentions these 2 books as essentially the "textbooks" for the course:
Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers, Robert Sapolsky
Chaos: Making a New Science, James Gleick
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Later on, he also brings up Stephen Wolfram's A New Kind of Science
And since that lecture series was done, in 2017, Sapolsky published a book, Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst, which has TONS of overlap with the lecture series. He doesn't go into the same exact stuff, especially in the later chapters versus the later lectures, but he follows the exact same pattern of explaining the biology of human behaviors. He even tells a lot of the same stories and personal insights.
It wouldn't surprise me if the vast majority of the literature he cites in the lectures are all referenced across those books, too, so it would be a totally valuable avenue to dig in on. I haven't personally read through the first two all the way yet (I'm about halfway through Zebras right now). Behave is worth reading in addition to the lectures, despite the huge overlap, imho, and probably lists most of the same studies he cites in its Notes section.
First, can you drop a class? That's the primary source of your stress. Check and see if your school has a student health center or counselors. They are a great resource for teaching stress management skills like mindfulness, meditation, and cognitive therapy, and they are often free.
Different strategies work for different people and personalities. Since I don't know your exact situation and personality, I can tell you things that I do for myself.
Make time for yourself to unwind. Don't study all day, every day. It won't make your grades better, trust me. Study hard, but give yourself breaks and a set time to close the books and call it quits for the day. Then do something enjoyable. Take a walk, call/hang out with a friend, watch some Netflix, find a dog and pet it. Don't guilt yourself for not studying.
Make sleep a priority Seriously, don't stay up late studying or pulling all nighters. You don't study well or remember things when you are tired. And sleep is essential for giving your body time to recover from the day and it's stresses. I found my grades and mood improved when I got a full night's sleep, even when it meant giving up an extra hour or two of study.
Check what your body is doing when you feel stressed. Are you holding your breath? Clenching your muscles? Relax and take long, deep breathes and relax your jaw and fists. This helps signal your body that you are not in mortal, physical danger and it can stop the flight or fight response that triggers the release of cortisol.
Give yourself permission to not have perfect grades. I don't know if you are a type A perfectionist, but I sure am. I was convinced I had to had perfect grades or my future would be adversely affected. Truth is, most employers don't care what your GPA is, they don't even ask. They don't care that you were summa cum laude or whatever, it looks nice on a resume and stuff, but that's about it. They are more concerned with how well you would work with other people, that you have a degree in whatever field you are seeing work in, and are trainable. It's ok to have a B or C every once in a while. Don't lose sleep over it and don't beat yourself up over it.
These are just a few out of many things to help your stress. Stress management is a skill that can be learned and practiced, and in my opinion ought to be taught in every high school and college. These things helped me get through an accelerated nursing program with my sanity intact and good grades to boot.
I would also recommend the book "Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers" (I'm aware of irony of me adding more reading to your already rigorous course load, lol!)
Anyway I'm curious to see how this works for you! Give me an update sometime and let me know if you have any questions!
One of the best books you could ever read about stress is Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers by Dr. Robert M. Sapolsky. You can also find his video lectures on YouTube.
Why Zebras don't get Ulcers
https://www.amazon.com.br/dp/B0037NX018/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1